


Field Trip Flip

by happyaspie



Series: Tony Stark is a Good Mentor [34]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Field Trip, Flash Thompson Being A Jerk, I Just Really Like the Tower Okay!, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Not Canon Compliant, Peter Parker Gets a Hug, Peter Parker is a Mess, Peter Parker's Field Trip to Stark Industries, Stark Tower, Switching Things Up a Little, The Tower Was Never Sold Because I Said So, Tony Stark Gets a Hug, Tony Stark is a Good Mentor, Tony Stark is the Reasonable One Here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:53:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22269712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happyaspie/pseuds/happyaspie
Summary: What if Peter wasn't dreading the class trip to Stark Industries?What if he was actually looked forward to Flash finding out that he really did have an internship with Tony Stark?What if he ended up getting a littletoo excitedabout that idea?What if it was Tony who had toreel Peter into prevent the trip from becoming a gigantic fiasco?
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Tony Stark is a Good Mentor [34]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1397362
Comments: 56
Kudos: 901
Collections: Collection of Peter's Fieldtrips to Stark Industries, Peter Parker’s Field Trip Fics, Peter's Field Trips, peter parker and his field trips





	Field Trip Flip

**Author's Note:**

> I know there are a ton of field trip trope fics out there. I think I've read the majority of them at least once and I **love them**! 
> 
> I wasn't going to add to the mix because there were already so many good ones out there but then I reread a few and decided that it might be fun to flip the usual dynamic. Typically Peter is the reasonable one in these kinds of fics. He's usually the one trying to downplay his position as an intern while Tony wants to go out of his way to embarrass and/or show him off. In this go-around, we have an eager Peter and very reluctant Tony.

As Peter exited the school and climbed into Happy's car on Friday afternoon he was absolutely elated. His school had planned a field trip to Stark Industries several weeks prior and it was going to take place on the following Monday. At first, he'd been hesitant about the whole thing. Having his class coming to look around the place where he spent a great deal of his time felt a little odd. The Tower was practically his second home, well, it _was_ his second home, really. He had a bedroom right across the hall from Tony's and he slept in it nearly every weekend. All of that fell to the wayside when Ned pointed out that this was actually going to be the best field trip of their entire school career. Not because it was Stark Industries but because Flash was finally going get what was coming to him. Everyone would see that _he was wrong_ and Peter wasn't a _liar._

With that in mind, Peter entered the lab already talking a mile a minute. "Hey, Mr. Stark! Guess what?", he asked but he didn't actually pause for any sort of reaction. "My class field trip is Monday and I'm so excited! This is going to be the best trip ever. Even better than than the one to the zoo, which is saying something because all the monkeys got loose that day and it was hilarious but this is going to--"

"--Kid!", Tony interrupted but he didn't actually look up from what he was doing. "Take a breath before you pass out."

"I'm not going to pass out _from talking_ , Mr. Stark.", Peter replied with a roll of his eyes. He knew how to _breathe_.

"Hmm.", Tony noncommittally hummed as he glanced up from the gauntlet he was working on in order to reference the holographic design. "Do you have homework?"

"It's Friday.", Peter replied as if that should have been obvious enough of an answer but the man wasn't to be dissuaded.

Tony nodded his head and glanced briefly in the kid's direction as he replied without missing a beat. "That doesn't mean you don't have any homework and if you don't get it done while your here this weekend, your aunt is going to have my head.", he adamantly returned before pointing towards the backpack that had been haphazardly discarded by the sliding glass doors. "So, for my own personal safety, I repeat... Do you have any homework?"

Holding his hands up in defense, Peter took a few steps backs and smiled. "I swear, I don't have any, Mr. Stark. I do have a question though."

With the threat of being screamed at by a very annoyed May having passed, Tony was already back to being fully immersed in his most current project. However, he was still listening and immediately came back with a distracted, "Alright, shoot. What's the question.", the second Peter indicated that he wanted to ask him something. Though he'd assumed it was going to be something a little more, _lab-related_.

"Do you think you could set FRIDAY up so that when I walk into the building with my class she can be all like, 'Welcome back, Mr. Parker. Would you like for me to let The Boss know you've arrived?', or something like that. Anything to make it sound like really actually work here, _for you,_ would be awesome.", Peter asked with a hopeful smile. 

After dropping his tools onto the work table, Tony looked up to meet eyes with his excitable mentee. "Kid... We're not using FRIDAY to boost your cool points. Isn't it good enough that almost everyone at the front desk knows your name?", Tony asked.

"I mean Yeah but think about it!", Peter said with glee. "This is my chance to get Flash off my back."

"Flash? This is about Flash?", Tony replied with a quirk of his brow. "Pete, I've offered many, _many_ times to take care of that problem for you and you've _declined every single time."_

"Well, duh, Mr. Stark, because you threatened to, and I quote, ' _blast him into a wall and blacklist him from every college within the US border_.'", Peter mimicked with a small roll of his eyes. 

"I also said that I would have him blacklisted from every university in the world if you ever decided to study abroad...", Tony added on with a smirk. He had defiantly said that. It seemed like a nice quiet, behind the scenes way to put as much distance as possible between his kid and _that kid_. He was trying to help. Peter defiantly didn't see it that way and it was aggravating, to say the least.

"My point exactly.", Peter emphasized before flopping down into the chair besides where his mentor was sitting. "This way he can see that I'm not lying without you going all over the top."

Holding up a hand in mild frustration, Tony scoffed. "I offered to give you a badge and a certificate."

"He would have thought I made those myself. This will be better.", Peter supplied with a shrug of his shoulders. He'd be dealing with Flash long enough to easily predict the outcome of most scenarios and it wasn't hard to guess what he would say to that. Literally anyone could create a false certificate to print and a laminated badge would prove nothing without actually using it to get into the building or something. 

"I offered to _come to your school_ and you freaked out.", Tony blandly returned. 

" _I know_ but I didn't want you to have to come _all the way to my schoo_ l just because Flash was being a jerk", Peter whined in response but it passed quickly and he was back to smiling not even a full three seconds later. "This is different though, _he's coming here_."

Looking at the boy beside him, Tony sighed in defeat. "Why don't I just meet you in the lobby?", he nearly pleaded, already regretting that he's allowed this particular tour to be approved. If he'd have known he was going to have to have this conversation he would have nixed it from the start. Well, had Pepper nix it from the start. He didn't actually make those kinds of decisions. 

"I mean, you can do that too but I really want FRIDAY to make a big deal about it. How cool would that be? Tony Starks super awesome AI _knows my name_ and acknowledges that I'm _a regular visitor._ ", Peter exclaimed as he hopped up out of his chair and began to pace with ecstatic energy.

After watching the kid walk past him several times, Tony finally grabbed him by the belt loop and forced him to come to a stop in front of him. "Sure, super-duper-uber-cool but the answer is still no. FRIDAY's never been set up to say anything to anyone in the lobby... and she's not a toy.", he explained with a seriousness that the teenager seemed to brush off in an instant. 

"I know, Mr. Stark! ...and I'm not saying that she is.", Peter strained. He couldn't grasp why his mentor was having such a hard time understanding this. He was a genius. "I'm just saying that having her talk to me in front of everyone would be the best thing ever."

Crossing his arms over his chest, Tony squinted his eyes in the kid's direction. "How is having me talk to you in front of everyone not 'the best thing ever'?", he questioned with indignation. He really thought he would rank at least a little higher than an artificial intelligence program. Especially considering he was the one that had programmed it. 

"I don't know.", Peter came back with a casual shrug of his shoulders. "Maybe I paid you to talk to me or something?"

For a full fifteen seconds, Tony could do nothing but stare at the kid. Then he laughed and laughed at the ridiculousness of that particular defense. "Kid... You couldn't _afford_ me.", he finally replied with absolute delight.

"Touche.", Peter replied with a deep sigh. That was probably very true. People paid the man hundreds of thousands of dollars to be on stage for two minutes introducing someone else. "So, no FRIDAY but you promise to meet me in the lobby, right, Mr. Stark?"

Leaning his head over into his hands, Tony sighed. "I promise to meet _at some point_."

~o~o~o~o~o~

Come Monday morning Peter was practically jittering with excitement as he stood outside with the rest of his class ahead of boarding the bus. The teacher was droning on and on about the rules and how their behavior was a reflection of him as well as the school but it seemed that no one was listening. There were clusters of quiet conversations throughout the entire group. Then just as they were told that it was time to climb onto the buses Flash strolled towards the back of the line where Peter and Ned were waiting and smirked.

"You look awfully excited for someone who's going to be proven a big fat delusional looser in the next half an hour.", Flash announced loud enough for everyone except the teachers to hear.

Peter nodded his head and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, you look awfully smug for someone who's going to be proven a big fat pompous jerk in the next half an hour.", he retorted because this was definitely going to be his day to take the upper hand. However, the other boy didn't look even remotely impressed by his back-talk.

"Better watch it, Parker.", Flash glowered before turning around to face the rest of the class with a self-righteous smile. "This is going to be my time to shine. I'll have a real Stark Industries internship by lunchtime and at the end of the day, you'll still be a pathetic loser who's never even been the same room as Tony Stark."

This time it was Ned's turn to roll his eyes. "Yeah, right.", he scoffed as he turned away from his overly conceited classmate in favor of climbing the steps behind Peter.

"What did you say!", Flash snapped as he grabbed Ned by the back of the shirt in an attempt to intimidate him. 

That, however, didn't work out as Ned smiled over his shoulder and shook his head. "I said nothing. Nothing at all."

There was no more of that conversation and the short ride to the tower was without confrontation. Flash was a jerk but he wasn't stupid. He wasn't going to give them a hard time within earshot of the teachers, leaving Peter and Ned to giddily chat for the entire trip. 

Walking into the tower wasn't quite a great as Peter had hoped it would be. Tony was nowhere in sight and it seemed that no one he knew was at the front desk. On the other hand, he did spot Happy in the corner of the large lobby and tried to gain his attention. Though that didn't work out and Flash ended up laughing at him for his efforts. 

"Really Parker? You think trying to get the security guard to talk to you is a good idea. Wait until they find out that you've been lying about working here. You'll probably get kicked out for making them look bad.", Flash sneered but before Peter or Ned could get in any sort of response, the tour guide had joined them. 

"Welcome Midtown High, I'll be your tour guide for today.", the young man stated as if giving a tour to a group of high schoolers would be the most boring thing he would do all day. Though to be fair, it probably would be. He worked for Stark Industries and was probably used to doing far more interesting things than discussing protocols and departments to a bunch of rowdy teenagers. "If you'll all gather around we need to get some name tags on you. Make sure you write your first and last name clear enough to be read from across the room.", he sighed out before glaring slightly towards the group as a whole. "...and no funny business. It has to be your real name."

Everyone clamored around the desk to write their names on stickers while the tour guide went on to explain all of the most obvious rules. Keep your name tag on, stay with the group, no horseplay, no photographs, no touching anything without permission. All the while, Peter was actively looking around for Tony who had yet to show up as promised. 

In fact, it wasn't until they were a good two hours into the dullest most uninteresting tour of their young lives that the elevator doors opened and Tony stepped into the hallway. Naturally, that caused a great deal of commotion as every single student attempted to call his name at once, leaving Peter to have a difficult time making his way towards the front. "Mr. Stark!", he called out once he'd been pushed back for the third time. He knew he could use his super strength to gain an edge but he wasn't trying to prove he was Spider-man. He was trying to prove he knew Tony so he held back.

Tony forced a smile and reluctantly shook a few hands as the adults in the group attempted to reign in the chaos but when he finally spotted Peter his smile turned more genuine. "Hey, Pete. How's the tour going?", he asked hoping that the kid would give him a quick answer and he would be free to leave, having adequately proven that they did, in fact, know each other. 

"It's great!", Peter replied while looking around the group to find Flash. He really wanted to see the other boy's face now that Tony was right there and talking to him but when he finally spotted him, he was in the middle of the crowd with his phone out, narrating some sort of stupid video. Probably talking about how great he was or how Tony was there to talk to him. Whatever he was saying was inevitably a lie but everyone knew that once it was on YouTube it became a collective truth because people were just weird like that.

Rolling his eyes, Peter planted his feet so that as his classmates, including Flash and Ned, could be herded past him and down the hall. That left him standing three long strides from where Tony had wearily exited the elevator and was now looking at him and him alone. "Alright, that was fun and all but I'm going to work now. I'll see you after class."

"What! Why? You can't go yet. Nobody even saw us together!", Peter irritably exclaimed. Everyone had been entirely too loud to hear the man say his name and Flash was too busy being a diva to even notice. Now they were all at the opposite end of the hall being lectured. No one had even noticed he was missing yet, let alone that he was having a private conversation with Tony.

Tony sighed and leaned up against the wall. "What are you talking about? I did exactly what you asked me to do. I met up with your group and talked to you."

"...but it was crazy and no one really noticed.", Peter argued and Tony must have agreed because he sighed and threw a hand up in the air in question. 

"What would you have me do, Pete? Stand up on a desk and do a little song and dance for you?", the man asked sarcastically.

"No! That would be ridiculous.", Peter replied with a mild glare. Then he tried to hurriedly come up with a plan that would do what he'd set out to do that day. Prove Flash wrong. "What if you, like, offered to let everybody take some sort of a test to see who was smart enough to actually intern here?"

Huffing a laugh, Tony shook his head. "Why would I do that, kid?", he asked with amusement because he couldn't fathom what that would solve.

"So that everyone could see that I'm the only one that could do it!", Peter rapidly replied. It made sense to him. He had already been working with the man for a year. He was certain that he could pass any kind of evaluation the company had to offer. 

Tony laughed lightly and reached out to place his hand on his kid's shoulders. "Right... and what if one or two of your classmates actually manages to pass, then what? You go to a nerd school, kid.", he pointed out with a smile but Peter looked completely unfazed.

"Then you can tell them the position is already filled.", he suggested with a wave of his hand.

Rolling his eyes, Tony went back to leaning on the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. "I'm not going to dangle a chocolate bar in front of a bunch of high schooler's noses. What kind of a jerk do you think I am?", he asked with an eyebrow raised.

Not feeling like he could argue with that, Peter clamped his mouth shut and tried to think of the next best thing. "Okay, fine. What if you took over the tour and brought everyone up to your lab?", Peter eagerly asked. He was actually pretty sure that this was the ideal solution, much better than his last one. This way everyone could see where he worked. There would be no question, he even had a desk with his name on it in there.

This time, rather than being amused, Tony was downright baffled. "Have you lost your mind? I'm not taking forty plus teenagers up to my lab.", he strained with disbelief. 

"....but it's a good idea!", Peter nearly shouted causing Tony to raise his eyebrows at him in warning.

"No, it's a safety hazard, is what it is. Those kids can't even handle the no photographs rule, I highly doubt that can handle the no touching one.", Tony replied with a flourish of his hand. He seen at a dozen phones snapping his picture before he'd even stepped all the way out of the elevator. 

"...but if we go up there everyone will see my stuff everywhere.", Peter whined but Tony held firm.

"Absolutely not.", Tony clipped as he placed his hands indignantly upon his hips. "There are things in there that can literally explode. No gabby hands allowed. End of discussion."

Sighing deeply, Peter threw his head back in exasperation. "Then can you at least pull me from the group by saying that you need my help with something since I'm here and all.", he begged, holding his hands together, beseechingly in front of his chest. 

"No.", Tony curtly replied.

Stomping his foot petulantly, Peter scrunched his eyebrows together in frustration. "Why not?"

"...because that would be irresponsible. You're here with your class, your teachers are in charge of your whereabouts and you're not supposed to separate from your tour group.", Tony replied with authority before pointing down the hall where his class was still standing. "Now, go catch up with your class before they realize your missing.", he added but when Peter continued to stare at him with his big brown, optimistic eyes, he softened his tone and reached out to give the boy's neck a gentle squeeze. "Look, I'll catch up with you later, alright?"

"Fine.", Peter practically pouted because this day was not going nearly as well as he thought it would. He really thought Tony would be a little more willing to help him out but so far his every attempt at roping the man into a good plan had fallen flat. All he could do was cling to the fact that his mentor had promised to catch up with them again later and maybe _just maybe_ everyone would be paying attention then.

After Peter had rejoined his class, Tony went back up to his lab and dropped his head onto the table. The same kid that had accused _him_ of being over the top was now so hellbent on proving his internship in the most dramatic possible ways that it was confounding. Leaning back in his chair he considered calling Pepper and getting her input on how to handle it but instead he sighed and asked FRIDAY what time the Midtown tour would be in the cafeteria. It was probably a very bad idea but joining the kid for lunch seemed like a fairly tame way to prove they were friendly with one another. 

Tony worked all the way up until FRIDAY informed him that Peter had entered the cafeteria. Then against what was more than likely better judgment he reluctantly stood up to join him. As he wandered into the cafeteria he was surprised to find that no one immediately recognized him but that was probably because it was after one and they were all too busy looking at food items to notice. Spotting Ned, first, Tony placed his hands in his pockets and quickly crossed the room. "Where's Pete?", he whispered causing the other boy to jump.

"Whoa! Hey, Mr. Sta--", Ned nearly shouted but ended up being cut off by Tony insistently shushing him and slapping a hand, momentarily, over his mouth. The last thing he wanted was to call attention to himself but thankfully the larger boy was quick to lower his voice. "Sorry! Peter's in the bathroom. I'm supposed to be holding our place in line."

"That's fine. Look, I'm going to go sit at that table in the corner. After you guys have your food come join me.... _quietly_.", he pressed before moving towards the table he's pointed out at a pace that was just quick enough to not draw attention to himself. From there, he sat in the chair that faced the wall and waited for the two energetic boys to join him. The plan was to sit with them during lunch and then let Peter hug him and say 'see you this afternoon' a little louder than necessary before disappearing behind the employees only door, thus avoiding any actual interactions with anyone else.

That went really well for the first three minutes. Then someone recognized him. How they recognized him by the back of his head was a mystery and the worst part was it wasn't even a student. It was a teacher. A teacher who then wanted to _talk to him_ , well, technically he wanted to apologize for _his class's behavior,_ but either way, it was a conversation he was not eager to have. "Yeah, it's fine. No big deal.", he placated in a way that he hoped made the teacher move on before anyone else saw him but before the other man could get the message a student walked over to him to ask something and that was all she wrote. After that, every head in the room turned towards him.

Though before anyone else could approach he saw Peter frantically crossing the distance between them while tightly holding on to a tray of food. Had it been anyone else zig-zagging through the crowd as he was there was no doubt that the food would have ended up all over the floor. Though before his kid could get all the way to him, one of the teachers who was now urging the students to get back to their lines and seats, stopped him. After taking a few cleansing breaths, Tony cleared his throat and gestured towards Peter. "Nope. That one's with me.", he said before scanning the room for the other familiar teenager and pointed towards him as well. "...that one too. Come on, Ned, hustle up.", he called out causing the other boy to scurry towards him.

For a beat, Tony thought the teachers were going to flat out refuse to allow their students near him because they had yet to step out of their way. Though it seemed that rather than protesting, they were simply processing before rapidly apologizing and letting the two boys come to him. Peter, as expected, was grinning from ear to ear. "There, are you happy now? All eyes are on you.", Tony hissed through is teeth before smiling slightly at the boy's decidedly proud posture.

"Yes. I'm very happy now.", Peter replied with a smirk before looking towards Ned. "Did Flash see?"

"Oh, he saw alright," Ned replied with a grin. "He's trying to tell everyone that this was a set up of some sort. I'm pretty sure no one believes him, though."

Sighing, Tony looked around the cafeteria until he spotted the boy who he was almost positive was Flash. The loudest and most arrogant looking boy in the room. He seemed to be arguing with a group of students while pointing an accusatory finger in their direction and for some reason that made him unreasonably annoyed. For a while, he sat there watching Flash, who was obviously talking trash on the other side of the cafeteria while listened to Peter and Ned discuss how they were going to make sure that everyone knew that Tony Stark had invited them to sit with him because he knew them and that reminded him of his original plan. "Alright, kid, how about we up the anty just a little bit."

"Like how?", Peter asked dubiously. 

"Like, when your done eating, I'll let you give me a hug and announce as loudly as you'd like that you'll meet me in my lab after school and then I'll agree.", he nonchalantly proposed. They'd already made a scene, there was no reason not to finish it up with a bang. Of course, he did have plenty of misgivings about taking the display further but the way hid kid's eyes lit up at the idea helped ease the foreboding thoughts that were nagging at him from the back of his head.

"Really? You'll let me hug you?", Peter practically squawked in surprise despite the fact that Tony had been hugging him on a near-daily basis for months.

Tony shook his head at the kid's shocked reaction and scoffed. "I let you hug me all the time..."

"Not in front of people...", Peter instantly retorted. Sure Tony hugged him but not in _public_ _._ That was typically reserved for the times that he spent the weekends in the penthouse or before he left the lab in the evenings. Definitely not in the middle of the cafeteria.

"Well, this is an exception because I'm nice like that.", Tony snapped back but there was no real heat in his words. He was more flustered than anything else. He'd not expected the kid to call him out on public displays of affection and now he felt suddenly self-conscious about it. "Do we have a plan or not?"

"We have a plan.", Peter replied quickly before the man could change his mind. 

It wasn't too much longer before the teachers were announcing that they all needed to start cleaning up soon so that they could return to the school. Peter took that as his cue to jump up and dump his tray. Tony followed him so that they were more in a more visible part of the room where he waited for the boy to wrap his arms around him. He then reciprocated the affection and for a split second, he forgot there was an audience and nearly kissed him on the side of the head. Thankfully he managed to catch himself with a small laugh. "Alrighty.", he said, with an ever so slightly nervous chuckle as he broke the embrace. "I'll see you in the lab later, yeah?"

"Yep.", Peter replied loudly before glancing to the side so that he could witness Flash's slack-jawed reaction. "I'll come by after school to help you with the new prototypes."

Tony gave a slightly exaggerated nod of his head before patting the boy on the shoulder. "Sounds great, kid. I'll see you then.", he replied before turning on his heels and getting out of the room before anyone could ask him anything. That didn't mean he wasn't watching, though. The second he was behind the door he used his phone to pull up the video feed from the cafeteria and watched as all of the other students began to surround both Peter and Ned, Flash included. Seeing as everyone was talking at once, he couldn't really make out what anyone was saying for several minutes. Then as the commotion died down, he saw one of the boys who he'd seen with Flash earlier approach his kid looking absolutely scandalized and after enhancing the audio feed he was able to make out the boy's words with no problem.

"Wait! Is he your dad!", the kid stammered with cautious skepticism as Peter's eyes turned as big as saucers.

"What? No! I just... I work here. I'm his... oh my God...I'm his _intern_. He's not, he's not... _my dad_!", Peter stuttered in mortification and all Tony could do was laugh. 

"Way to keep it cool there, Hotshot.", Tony whispered to himself with glee as he watched the kid flounder. If the boy had been going for a big reaction he was certainly getting one. It seemed as though the entire class had literally gone from one extreme to the other, having shifted from being completely cynical to making wild assumptions in less than two minutes' time. It was probably going to end up being a social media nightmare and Pepper was undoubtedly going to kill him for it later. ...but on the plus side, he figured that Peter could no longer complain that no one believed him about his internship _or the fact that he really did know Tony Stark._


End file.
